Today's Facts January 29, 2003 - 11:49 a.m.

Fact of the Day:
The eyes and nose of a frog are on top of its head, enabling it to breathe and see when most of its body is under the water.

Today in History:
1730 - Peter II, tsar of Russia (1727-30), died of smallpox on the day set for his wedding.
1802 - John Beckley became the first Librarian of Congress with the starting salary of $2 a day. Not bad for a days work, since in 1802 you could buy a house for $25.00.
1845 - Edgar Allen Poe's classic poem, "The Raven," was published in the New York Evening Mirror. Poe did not sign the poem, but used the nom de plume of "Quarles".
1861 - Kansas entered the United States as the thirty-fourth state.
1886 - German motor pioneer Karl Benz was granted a patent for the first successful gasoline-driven car.
1924 - R. Taylor of Cleveland, Ohio patented the ice cream cone rolling machine.
1945 - Lionel Barrymore became the host of radio's "Lux Theatre"; as he replaced previous host, Cecil B. DeMille.
1949 - In Virginia, the ship, "The Newport News", was commissioned as the first, air-conditioned naval ship.
1959 - Walt Disney's classic animated film, Sleeping Beauty, was released in theaters on this date. Reviews and reactions were mixed, as Disney had deviated from the style of animation the public had grown accustomed to.
1964 - Screen actor Alan Ladd, best known for his role of the mysterious gunfighter in the film Western Shane, committed suicide at age 50 with alcohol combined with sleeping pills and three medicines. Ladd had had a severe drinking problem for many years.
1973 - Johnny Rivers was awarded a gold record for "Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu".
1977 - Rose Royce took the #1 spot on the music charts with "Car Wash", from the movie of the same title. The song lasted a week at the peak before dropping away.
1977 - Gifted comedian and television actor Freddie Prinze, age 22, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a revolver in front of Martin "Dusty" Snyder, his business manager. He died in a Los Angeles hospital 36 hours later. Prinze catapulted to fame in the television sitcom, Chico and the Man, and experienced many emotional problems as a result, as well as a divorce. His suicide note read, "I cannot go on any longer." It was later determined that the suicide was actually intended as a practical joke by Prinze, who was under the influence of Quaaludes. He had faked suicide attempts in front of network secretaries earlier that day. Whether Prinze thought the gun was empty, thought that the safety was on, or just wasn't thinking due to the drugs, the joke he thought he was pulling on Snyder resulted in his untimely death.
1987 - According to "Physician's Weeekly," the smile of Mona Lisa was caused by "...facial paralysis resulting from a swollen nerve behind the ear."
1989 - The first of 20 episodes of the children's television program, Shining Time Station, the half-hour American version of Britain's "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends," was aired in the United States on PBS. Former Beatle drummer Ringo Starr was originally cast as the 18-inch-tall Mr. Conductor. A few years later, he was replaced by comedian George Carlin.
1996 - Venice's opera house, named La Fenice or "The Phoenix," was destroyed by fire for the second time in its history.

Born on this Day:
1843 - William McKinley - U.S. President d: 1901
1874 - John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. - industrialist d: 1960
1879 - W.C. [William Claude] Fields [Dukenfield] - entertainer d: 1946
1945 - Tom Selleck - Emmy Award-winning actor
1954 - Oprah Winfrey - Emmy Award-winning talk show host, actress
1960 - Greg [Gregory Efthimios] Louganis - Olympic gold medalist diving
1968 - Ed Burns - director, actor, writer
1968 - Heather Mills - model
1970 - Heather Graham - actor, model
1975 - Sara Gilbert [Rebecca Sara MacMahon] - actress
1979 - Andrew Keegan - actor

Also born in 1979, on this day... Me.

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